GPLindsey

Some bafflers I've been ruminating on concerning Satan:

If Satan is a prisoner in Hell, then who is his jailor? If one of God's angels, then is this angel tormenting Satan so that he will suffer for his sins in Hell, as do all the other sinners? How could it be moral for one of God's angels to carry out torture?

If Satan is the Warden, then what kind of Warden would he be? Satan's whole raison d'etre is to defy God's will. What is God's will for the sinners in Hell? Why, that they suffer for their sins, of course. But then, in order to defy God's will, Satan would likely do the opposite. He would make the eternal lives of those caste into Hell as pleasant as possible. How irritating, how annoying to God that would be!! All of Hell one big party, while God is surrounded by the tiresome "Faithful" singing "How Great Thou Art" for the billionth time.

I must reflect some more upon this...

Tercel

That would rather depend on what you think Hell is. Is it a physical place, some kind of undesirable state of being, or simply non-existence? The Bible's not exactly clear...
Even if Hell is a place, why does it necessarily require a jailor? What would this jailor do?

Oh, and what exactly do you mean by "Satan is a prisoner in Hell"? That doesn't seem to be any sort of Christian theology I recognise. (And I'm a Christian)

I'm not sure where the idea of Satan as the Warden of Hell comes from (though I've run into it before), suffice to say it isn't biblical.

Echo

Based on my reading of the OT and NT, the answer is "neither." Satan is not in hell but is up and about, patrolling the cosmos and looking for folks to devour. It comes with the title of being "prince of this world" I suppose.

Not that this seems any more believable.

DrLao

Revelations 20 talks about Satan being bound up for a thousand years, then cast into a pit of fire to be tormented forever.

Joe Nobody

Satan? The red guy with the horns and pitchfork? Mythological being who does not exist. The real Satan of the Bible was once the greatest of the angels who has turned very bad. Likewise that angel is a mythological being. The caricature called the mythological Satan above stems from misunderstanding the original mythological Satan mentioned below it. But maybe that can be traced even further back and the initial caricature of Satan mentioned in this post is based upon a misunderstanding of an earlier caricature of Satan which is based on.... Nevermind, will the real Satan please stand up?

Joe Nobody

G B Mayes

Satan is alive and well, going to and fro, staying busy.

The Revelation note describes a coming event, not the present.

Samhain

Just curious. Hell seems a bit too dark, dismal, and agonizing to me. If Satan were concerned with overthrowing God and taking over God's place and heaven, would not he want to be building an army instead of torturing potential soldiers? Ala Devil's Advocate.

Ragnarok

When I was a fundy this what I learned. As the poster above says, Satan is not in hell right now. He's out and about in this world. He's down at McDonalds right now telling the pimply kid to stiff you on tomatoes on your Big Mac, for instance.

One day Jeebus will come back and Satan will be imprisoned in hell forever to suffer along with all the people he misled. You, as an ordinary sinner, however, get the special benefit of beginning your suffering right after you kick off. Unlike the (presumably) most evil being in the universe you don't get to screw around on earth for millenia before you start serving your time.

It was never made clear who did the tormenting in hell. Demons? Well, yes, but who tortures them? They need punishment too after all. Is there a chain of hierarchical torment? But then who tortures the top guy? God?

Qui torturiet torturies?

(My latin is appaling, this is a joke, not meant to be real Latin, please don't flame)

GPLindsey

Everyone's right, of course, that my post should have made clear that--in the future--Satan and all the other damned are to be sent to Hell to be tormented forever. Satan is right now roaming the Earth getting people to commit sin (he was REALLY busy just before taxes were due April 15th).

The Lord Jesus Christ himself told us all that Hell was a real place. "Then he will say to those on the left, Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels...Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." Matthew 25, vs. 41 and 46. Various "Press secretaries" for Jesus since then have sought to clarify Jesus's remarks and reinvent Hell into something more palatable. However, the most commonly held view about Hell among Christians, IMO, is that it is a place where all the unsaved are tormented eternally.

Which brings us back to my original question of who does the tormenting. If Satan and his demons are doing it, then they must be enjoying themselves, so that means they are not suffering. If they are prisoners as well, then who tortures them? Has to be God or his designees. Maybe Heaven and Hell are in fact the same place--i.e., only the most devout fundamentalists are Saved, and as their Heavenly reward they get to torment sinners forever. Now this would actually make sense.

Of course, the real answer is that there is no God, no Satan, no Hell, no afterlife, etc. etc. etc.

HelenM